Maritime operations

A little love for the fleet workhorse

By Bill McMichael on August 18, 2011 Carrier On-Board Delivery plane, Carriers, Class A mishaps, Flight deck certification, Logistics, Maritime operations, Naval aviation, Navy, Photos, Sea trials

A lengthy post-availability at-sea period just ended for the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, which blitzed through sea trials, flight deck certification, carrier quals, and 3M (Maintenance Material Management) inspections following nine months of shipyard work that ended in mid-June. During that time, Ike’s primary lifelines to shore were the reliable Carrier On-Board Delivery planes that deliver mail to ship and shore and carry personnel and spare parts back and forth. Filling the bill for Ike was Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40 out of Naval Station Norfolk’s Chambers Field. It goes without saying that CODs “deliver the mail.” According to VRC-40’s…

That flag

By Bill McMichael on August 2, 2011 Aviation, Foreign navies, Helicopters, Historical, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Maritime operations, Naval aviation, Navy, Pearl Harbor, Photos, Ships, The Pacific, Training, World War II

I remember a 1990-ish visit to a Japanese submarine base and being dumbfounded to see the subs flying the rising sun flag off their stern masts. Dumbfounded, because being, ahem, of a certain age, I associated the flag — a red disc with red and white “beams” extending outward — with the aggressive World War II-era regime that launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in an effort to exercise total dominance over the Pacific. Its use was banned in 1945 following the surrender to the United States and its allies, but many Americans don’t realize that it was re-adopted…

Good works in Jax

By Bill McMichael on July 29, 2011 Carriers, CNATRA, Community relations, Maritime operations, Naval aviation, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Photos, Sea trials, Ships

More than 40 sailors from the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower spent the morning of July 26 sprucing up a resource center for the homeless in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., during a three-day port call in Mayport that began July 25. The center, called Mission House, offers food and counseling services to the homeless in the Jacksonville area. Ike’s port call came in the midst of an underway period in the Atlantic following a nine-month maintenance availability at Norfolk Naval Shipyard. While at sea, the carrier successfully completed sea trials and has continued with additional training. Hopefully, these hard-working sailors received some…

Ike's return is on track

By Bill McMichael on July 14, 2011 Aviation, Carriers, Flight deck certification, Maintenance, Maritime operations, Navy, Photos, Safety, Shipyard, Unmanned carrier landing

The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower is enjoying a noteworthy and productive post-availability period at sea. On July 2, Ike, operating off the Atlantic coast, was the scene of the first fully hands-free carrier landing as an F/A-18D modified to emulate the in-development X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System aircraft touched down under control of an onboard computer network linked to the plane. The aircraft was manned in case something went wrong, but the pilot kept his hands off the controls, the Navy told my colleague Joshua Stewart. See his story in the July 18 Navy Times. Four days later, the carrier…

It's a real FRUKUS

By Bill McMichael on June 21, 2011 Counter-piracy, Foreign navies, Maritime interdiction, Maritime operations, Navy, Officers, Photos, Royal Navy, Ships, Training

No, we haven’t lost our sense of decorum here at Scoop Deck. FRUKUS 2011 is an invitational naval exercise now underway off the Virginia coast involving ships from Russia, France, the U.K. and the U.S. Navy. “FRUKUS” is an acronym for all four nations — we’re guessing it rhymes with RUCKUS, which means a commotion — but it’s a bit more controlled than that denotes. It’s a two-week interoperability exercise … but let’s get to the pictures of the ships, shall we? ‘Ere’s the British ship, a destroyer … The French entrant, a frigate…

Home for Dad's day

By Bill McMichael on June 18, 2011 Ballistic missile defense, Homecoming, Libya, Maritime operations, Navy, Norfolk Naval Station, Personnel, Photos, Ships, SURFLANT, The Med, Tomahawk

The destroyer Stout came home to Norfolk Saturday following a Med cruise in support of theater security operations and ballistic missile deterrence … … and just in time for Father’s Day: Stout took part in the coalition strikes on Libyan forces that began in mid-March. Stout was the first ship on station and fired multiple salvos of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Libyan air defenses, surface-to-air sites and communications nodes, along with the destroyers Stout and Barry, the attack submarines Providence and Scranton and the guided missile submarine Florida, according to the Navy. The crew also had to deal with the…

Daly: Amphibious forces are more relevant than ever

By Bill McMichael on April 1, 2011 Admirals, Amphibious operations, Amphibious Ready Group, Gator Navy, Historical, Korean War, Marine Corps, Marine Expeditionary Unit, Maritime operations, Ships, The Med, The Middle East

The deputy commander of Fleet Forces Command used his keynote speech at the decommissioning of the amphibious assault ship Nassau in Norfolk March 31 to stump for continued support for the “Gator Navy” and the capability to launch U.S. Marines onto contested shore, arguing that such a capability reduces the need for U.S. bases on foreign shores. Vice Adm. Peter Daly pointed to the Essex Amphibious Ready Group and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit providing humanitarian assistance and disaster response following the earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan; the Boxer ARG and 13th MEU being accelerated into the Persian…

Got pirates?

By Gidget Fuentes on February 21, 2011 Gator Navy, Maritime operations, Navy, Pirates

The latest hijacking an American couple aboard their yacht Quest by Somali pirates is capturing more of the public’s attention than have dozens of other acts of piracy on the high seas, notably off east Africa where pirates are finding gold in the ransoms sought for their captured vessels ranging from large container ships to smaller craft. Pirates, it seems, face pretty good odds as they wait out for the big payday. Once in awhile, pirates are plain overwhelmed, by firepower or manpower or just will to fight. We saw that when Navy SEAL snipers aboard the destroyer Bainbridge killed all…

Take that, Kim Jong-il

By David Larter on November 1, 2010 Ballistic missile defense, Foreign navies, Maritime operations, Navy, North Korea, Photos

The Japanese destroyer JS Kirishima shot down a medium-range ballistic missile during a joint exercise with the Navy. Read about it here.

Farewell, Saturn

By Bill McMichael on October 28, 2010 Aviation, Carriers, Maritime operations, Navy, ordnance, Photos, Royal Navy, Ships, Sinking

There may not have been many of you — the former supply ship Saturn’s crew of 160 never included many more than 40 sailors during its 25-year run with Military Sealift Command — but here’s a respectful nod to you and your old ride, which was sunk in the Atlantic Wednesday after the George H.W. Bush Strike Group spent two days attacking the decommissioned ship during a training/sinking exercise. Ships from Destroyer Squadron 22 and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 8, along with Patrol Squadrons 10 and 45, took part in the tactical training exercise using surface-to-surface, air-to-surface and surface-to-air…

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